INDIANAPOLIS — A new roundabout is coming to the intersection of 71st Street and Dean Road on the north side of Indianapolis. It's a $1.5 million commitment from the city, focused on alleviating traffic backup and improving safety issues in the area.
"It's not the best intersection," one neighbor said.
It's a sentiment many neighbors shared with WRTV on Friday.
"For this intersection specifically, they need to do something different."
One neighbor - who asked not to be identified - told WRTV she sees problems there all the time.
“That metal fence that's on the northeast corner, they repaired that so many times cause a lot of times it gets taken out when there’s an accident," she stated.
She's experienced some of the potential safety issues herself.
“There was somebody going north on Dean, probably going 40 miles an hour, did not realize there was a stop sign there. I saw them and I got out of the way fast enough or they would have t-boned me," she said.
Those safety concerns are part of the reason the Department of Public Works said they wanted to build this new roundabout.
"You improve flow. You improve safety," Kyle Bloyd, Chief Communications Officer with DPW, explained. “71st and Dean is a lot like other areas around town that, as the city population has grown, some of the city infrastructure needs to grow with it.”
The idea to put the roundabout on 71st St. comes just one year after DPW put a roundabout just north on Dean Rd. on 79th St. The goal there was to mitigate traffic concerns; the same concerns they're now having just down the road.
"The roundabout on 79th has made a big difference in the flow of traffic," one neighbor said.
The hope is the new roundabout will do the same down on 71st.
“I know it can take a little bit of getting used to," Bloyd said. "But we do believe - in the long run - it’s going to improve your commute times. It’s going to improve the safety of the area as well.”
DPW is currently working on designs for the roundabout. They hope to start construction as soon as 2028.
The roundabout will also include new sidewalks and drainage infrastructure to the area, improving pedestrian safety and increasing drainage capacity to the nearby stormwater infrastructure.
